SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire - January 27, 2011) - Storenvy, a social marketplace and store builder for indie brands, today announced that it has secured $1.5 million financing led by Spark Capital and First Round Capital with participation from KPCB, Charles River Ventures and a group of key angels including David Cohen (founder of TechStars), John Maloney (president of Tumblr), David Cancel (CEO of Performable) and David Hauser & Siamak Taghaddos (co-founders of Grasshopper). Headquartered in San Francisco, Storenvy provides a stylish social marketplace for shoppers and an easy online store builder for thousands of merchants all over the world -- for FREE. With a vibrant community of 60,000 shoppers and 2,800 online stores, Storenvy is reimagining e-commerce for the social Web.
"When people think of e-commerce, they don't think of words like 'cool,' 'stylish,' or 'fun.' We're changing that," said Jon Crawford, CEO, Storenvy. "We imagined what e-commerce should look like in the midst of the social Web, and this is what we came up with. Everything ties to Facebook and Twitter, and our Facebook app lets you put a store right on your Facebook page. And of course simplicity and customization play a big part, too. Storenvy is doing for e-commerce what Tumblr has done for blogging, making it more accessible and more social."
Whether you love discovering unique things to buy or you're an independent merchant, Storenvy is changing the face of the e-commerce experience. For sellers, "there are a lot of places to sell stuff online today, but no one has done a very good job keeping up with where the Social and Consumer Web are going like we have," Crawford said. Storenvy enables anyone from the owner of a fashion boutique to a guy designing skateboard decks to create their own completely customizable store at no charge and with no programming knowledge required. And by combining all the stores' products into one big marketplace, stores make more sales through the natural discovery process. (Current stat: Storenvy stores make almost 15% of their sales through the marketplace rather than through direct store traffic.) For shoppers, a well-categorized marketplace makes it easy to browse all stores at once, allowing them to save their favorite items for later and follow their favorite stores and users. "It's a no-brainer," Crawford said.
"Storenvy has achieved impressive results so far and we see a huge potential in the company," said Santo Politi, general partner at Spark Capital. "Despite the many e-commerce platforms on the market, there is still a clear need for an affordable and social marketplace. With thousands of stores currently registered on Storenvy and hundreds of new users signing up every day, Storenvy has an approach and technology that has a tremendous market potential."
"We look forward to working together with Jon's team and helping them drive more exciting results," said Kent Goldman, Principal, First Round Capital. "The e-commerce space is growing faster than ever, with online sales consistently stealing mindshare from brick and mortar vendors. Storenvy has already made tremendous progress with early user traction and we are confident that they will continue to get more attention from high-quality sellers and shoppers worldwide."
Storenvy is looking to expand its team following its infuse of capital. The company hopes to hire several core employees this year who can contribute their talents and creativity to the cause of making e-commerce more social and awesome. For more information on available positions with Storenvy, visit http://www.storenvy.com/jobs.
About Storenvy
Storenvy is a social marketplace for discovering awesome stuff from real people. It provides sellers with a completely free and easy way to create fully customizable and feature-rich online stores, while allowing shoppers to interact with the sellers and each other through a vast marketplace. For more information, visit www.storenvy.com.
About First Round Capital
First Round Capital is one of the nation's most active seed-stage funds with offices in San Francisco, New York and Philadelphia. As an early investor, First Round often provides a company's first outside capital -- and typically invests alongside angel investors in pre-revenue companies. The partnership uniquely understands the challenges of launching a new product and takes an active role in its portfolio companies. First Round operates as an entrepreneurial shop and makes quick decisions: no investment committees, no months of negotiations. For more information, visit www.firstround.com.
About Spark Capital
Spark Capital is a venture capital firm based in Boston, Massachusetts, with investments focused on the conflux of the media, entertainment and technology industries. Over the last decade, the Spark team has been instrumental in the development of new markets and market leaders such as Twitter, Tumblr, Svpply, Boxee, KickApps, gdgt, Signpost, 5min and ExtensionFM. With deep experience and $980 million under management, Spark Capital provides world-class entrepreneurs and revolutionary companies with the resources to succeed in today's marketplace. For more information, visit www.sparkcapital.com.
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